Turchynov accused the Russian secret services of having a presence on Facebook

Thursday, May 18, 2017 1:07:00 PM

During a recent press briefing, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, accused the Russian secret services of having a presence on Facebook.

Turchynov noted that unlike Russian social networks that fall under sanctions in Ukraine, Facebook and Twitter willingly cooperate with law enforcement agencies in Ukraine. "When a fake page propagating war, violence, or separatism appears on Facebook or Twitter, and the Ukrainian special service appeals to them with a statement that this page displays negative and dangerous content, they delete it immediately," he said.

According to Turchynov, similar cooperation with Odnoklassniki and VKontakte is impossible due to opposition from the FSB. At the same time, according to the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, foreign social networks are also under the influence of the Russian special services. "There are also Russian special services that create fictitious accounts and throw in some kind of provocative information," Turchynov said. At the same time he noted that Ukraine intends to fight this phenomenon. "There are mechanisms to cope with this, including working with the leadership of these social networks," he stressed.

Sanctions against Russian Internet companies were introduced by President Petro Poroshenko’s order on May 15th. In general, sanctions are imposed against 468 Russian and Ukrainian companies, as well as against 1,228 individuals. Among the Internet companies from this list are Mail.Ru Group services (including the Mail.ru domain and the popular social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki that belong to the Mail.ru holding) and Yandex.